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Old Blox Elevated
The Old Blox Elevated is an elevated railway running through the City of New Blox and Glendale Springs. History The elevated rails were first built as a highway in 1979, then converted into rails in 1983. It was used by the Orange line, which serviced the entire elevated rail from 1984 to 2012, when the Orange line was merged with the Purple line to create the Gold line. Highway The elevated was first made as a highway, but then it was found that it was in a quite inconvenient position, as many roads already ran at around the same route as the Elevated, and those roads were quite clear. It also served relatively empty areas, where it was not needed. The highway eventually turned into a pain for the City, and it was eventually abandoned. Subway Orange Line The highway was reconfigured as a elevated rail later on, and the sections where Glendale (formerly Glendale Tottenwood), Docks (formerly Upper Wood), and Symphony (formerly Shinobi Jacen Memorial) are today were saved. The remaining sections of the highway were demolished, although some bits still remain, and in some cases, entire sections. Disuse By 2009, with the opening of the Green and Red Line, the Orange, formerly the main way to get into the city by train, fell into disuse. The Red line serviced a greater area of the city, and the Green was more accessible. The Orange, while still existent, was poorly serviced and maintained. The stations often had areas where waiting for the train meant not falling through the numerous holes in the elevated platforms. Often trains would derail and nearly crash into the cars below. Ridership averaged about 20 people per week, a far cry from its opening rate of 895 per week. Not a problem in terms of need for attention, except that usually only four trains came per day, and three of those poorly maintained trains would never even make it to the end. They usually fell to breakdowns, derailments, or became the accidental bystanders of crime. The line was technically shut down to "revenue service" in 2009, and while the stations were still maintained at their current states, and the maps of the system still included it, no more Orange line trains would ever run on it ever again. It would have to wait until 2012 before the rails were ever used again. Orange/Purple merger In 2011, subway managers noticed that the Old Blox Elevated and the tracks for the then-existent Purple line lined up, and combined, could supply a backup route into the city besides the Red Line. At the point of time, the Red Line was undergoing renovation, and it really depended on the rider's luck if the station they wanted to travel to was open or not-if there were even trains running on the day. Fustration was growing, and the planners needed a quick solution. They decided to merge the Purple and the defunct Orange lines into a new line, the "Gold line" in a relevance to their term for the new line, the "Golden Solution". The RTC was to renovate the former Orange line stops and in some cases (Upper Wood, Shinobi Jacen Memorial) they completely demolished and rebuilt them. Holes were patched, power lines were fixed, and troublesome areas of the rails were patched up. Even so, the committee in charge of the repairs stated that the Elevated was a "Worrisome Accident waiting to happen at high speed" and that "the highest safe speed that any train driver could ever possibly use without endangering the passenger's lives...is 50 MPH". Even so, the connections were made, and the rails joined. Select Orange line trains (there were only 3 cars selected) were refurbished as Gold line trains, and joined with the recolored Purple line trains, the rails were opened. Current usage Gold line The Gold line currently uses the rails from Symphony Station to Docks Station, where the rails abruptly end due to the RTC taking down the extra rails for safety. Even so, occasional sections of the line that were planned for destruction still stand, rusting away. Events Once a year to celebrate the joining of the Purple and Orange lines, two cars that have not been repainted with the Gold line stripe-The one in the front is from the Purple line, the one in the back is Orange, for obvious safety reasons-will run along the route nonstop for the entire day. Category:Gold line Category:Subway Category:RTC Category:City of New Blox Category:Glendale Springs